Don't try this at home!

[tobby]

I took my P3S up for a short flight yesterday and had about 40% battery left on the AC. I thought I would run the battery down by spinning the props at an idle until I got down to around 15 % and then recharge it after it cooled for a while.

The bird was sitting on the floor of the office with the props spinning while I sat at the computer doing uploads.After a while the low battery warnings started on my tablet. Without thinking I reached over and shut off the remote. The **** AC started revving up and lifting off. OOPS! I caught the bird by the landing gear at about 6' AGL and held it while I quickly turned on the RC and shut the props off.

It could have been tragic. I was lucky.

tobby

 

[tevek]

I took my P3S up for a short flight yesterday and had about 40% battery left on the AC. I thought I would run the battery down by spinning the props at an idle until I got down to around 15 % and then recharge it after it cooled for a while.

The bird was sitting on the floor of the office with the props spinning while I sat at the computer doing uploads.After a while the low battery warnings started on my tablet. Without thinking I reached over and shut off the remote. The **** AC started revving up and lifting off. OOPS! I caught the bird by the landing gear at about 6' AGL and held it while I quickly turned on the RC and shut the props off.

It could have been tragic. I was lucky.

tobby

Wonder where your RTH was set at...lol

 

[CCrew]

Wonder where your RTH was set at...lol

Sounds like it was set to RTH at a minimum battery level doesn't it?

 

[tevek]

Sounds like it was set to RTH at a minimum battery level doesn't it?

I was thinking that the switched off remote triggers the RTH with lost signal and the fun begins.

 

[With The Birds]

Any reason why you wanted to run the battery down to 15%? Do that four times from a 40% charge and you have just thrown away a charge cycle you could have used for flying.

 

[alokbhargava]

I never saw this behavior. Did you switch off the aircraft after last landing? If the battery was kept on, AC will remember the last home point.

 

[tobby]

The AC had not been shut down since the flight. My RTH was set @ 100 meters, but the ceiling would have stopped it @ 2 meters if I had not caught it.

Tobby

 

[DanMan32]

You can set fail-safe to hover or land. That might have prevented the fly up.
Just don't forget to put the setting back. In case you might forget, hover would probably be best. Not sure what that equates to when idling on the ground.